Ace looks at his men and then nods his head.
“Help her out of here.” He commands. “And get me a goddamn doctor.” The guards split up, carrying out his wishes. Hazel is lifted into one of their arms, and I know just by looking at her that I’m going to need to get her to a hospital.
As I go to leave, gun still clutched in my hands he says, “But don’t expect that we won’t find you again. And next time, you won’t be walking away.”
CHAPTER 27
HAZEL
17 YEARS OLD
“Dig faster, you fucking cunt.”Kyle spits out. My arms are shaking with the effort to move the mounds of wet earth. It squishes beneath my nails, the process slow due to how heavy each bit of mud is.
“Why are you doing this?”
He snarls down at me, taking his once handsome face and contorting it into something else. Something full of hatred and evil. Lightning flashes in the sky above, illuminating his imposing figure from behind, giving him a sinister air about him that I didn’t see earlier.
This whole night, this whole stupid excursion and childish game was such a bad idea. But there’s no taking it back now, it’s too late, and I don’t know how we ended up here. How everything turned so bad, so quickly.
“I’m doing her a favor. Besides, I can’t be having her hold me back and messing with my plans.”
“What do you mean?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
I look up at him, the rain drenching my face and distorting my vision. He crouches down next to me, gripping me by my hair, his face inches from mine.
“That fucking whore is pregnant with my baby.”
I freeze. It can’t be. She wouldn’t… would she? Did I miss the signs? All those late nights when I poured my heart out to her about how much I liked Kyle, did I miss the way she too looked affected by him.
“That’s not true.” Tears sting my eyes mixing with the cold rain. “She likes Matty, not you.”
“Guess you two weren’t as close as you thought. Now keep fucking digging, I don’t want to tell you again. I’d hate to have to bash your head in for disobeying.” He snickers like he just said something funny.
All the playfulness from earlier has dissipated, making it hard to grapple with the fact that this Kyle is the same Kyle from earlier. How quickly he was able to switch. To go from making me believe he liked me, that there was something growing between us, that he was worth liking, to seeing him for who he really is. A fucking monster, trying to bury the mother of his child, and my friend.
It’s too dark to see clearly, but I look around for something, anything to fight back with. Maybe I can escape and get us some help. The last I checked, Sarah was barely breathing. In the time that’s passed, I worry that it might be too late.
Muscles screaming, I continue to dig, hoping a solution will jump out at me. Fear coats my stomach, threatening to climb up my burning esophagus and release as a puddle of bile as the seconds tick by. Every moment I can’t run to get help, is another moment where Sarah might not make it.
As I dig, I realize that I still have the camera stowed away in my jeans. Though, I’m not sure if it will even work in the rain, I have to try. It might be my only way to get evidence against him, because otherwise, it’s just my word against his. That is, if he’ll even let me walk out of here.
The hole is long enough to fit her body in, and maybe three or so feet deep. Mud covers my arms, sticking to my face and hair. I’m too busy digging to see the hard object coming, but I should have noticed that Kyle’s no longer standing next to me.
He’s behind me.
Before I have time to register what’s happening, something sharp and heavy smacks the back of my head and I go down, hard. Face pressed into the ground, I scramble to turn around onto my back, fighting the waves of dizziness. Fumbling, I manage to dig the camera out of my pocket, wiping bits of mud from my eyes. The cool metal slipping against my muddied hand while I aim as best I can, looking up at my attacker from the grave I dug myself. His form multiplies and moves, making me second guess where he is.
The sky erupts in a bright white light, illuminating the darkness behind him. I click the button over and over again before the lights go out in my brain, hoping that it’s enough to damn him.
The last thing I remember, is something heavy landing onto my body, causing me to sink further down into the wet earth as it becomes more difficult to breathe. I drift off to the sound of soft, cruel laughter, before everything goes pitch black.
CHAPTER 28
ACE
27 YEARS OLD
